Shimla, Nov. 2 -- In a setback to the Himachal Pradesh government, the Himachal Pradesh high court has struck down key provisions allowing the state to defer and release revised salary and pensionary arrears of government employees and pensioners in a phased manner, holding that administrative discretion and financial constraints cannot override statutory monetary entitlements.

The Division Bench of justice Vivek Singh Thakur and justice Ranjan Sharma, in a judgment pronounced on October 31, 2026, allowed a batch of writ petitions challenging the government's mechanism for staggered release of revised pay arrears and retirement benefits arising from the Revised Pay Rules notified on January 3, 2022.

The HC Bench "read down and declared ...